The Devotion of an Old-Fashioned Doctor in Romania

Credit Ioana Moldovan

The Devotion of an Old-Fashioned Doctor in Romania

By Rena SilvermanDec. 29, 2016Dec. 29, 2016

As a little girl, Ioana Moldovan eagerly awaited her vacations at her grandfather’s house in southwestern Transylvania. He lived in a steel mill town, where he raised rows of tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, cranberries and cherries, which Ms. Moldovan would eat directly from the trees. While her grandfather, Ion Ciugudean, did not talk much about his work as a radiologist, he did seem to know everyone in the village. Whenever he would go to the market, shopkeepers and customers would say hello and treat him with the same respect he treated his patients.

“I loved him the most,” Ms. Moldovan said. “As a small child, I spent a lot of time with him. We were both crying whenever I had to come back to Bucharest.”

Sixteen years after her grandfather’s death, Romania is no longer under Communist rule and his town has taken on a post-industrial disposition. Ms. Moldovan, 36, is now returning to her childhood memories for a project about rural Romanian doctors. And though the project stems from her heart, it is not shy of social significance.

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Dr. Floarea Ciupitu has been a family doctor in Gângiova, Romania, for the past three decades. August 2016.Credit Ioana Moldovan

Ms. Moldovan has been following Dr. Floarea Ciupitu, a family doctor who cares for about 1,700 patients in Gângiova, a commune in southwestern Romania. Dr. Ciupitu has been working there for about 30 years, with only a single nurse to assist her. For her, the work is more of a calling than a career.

She is what some in the United States might consider an old-fashioned doctor, who puts her patients above profit. Her story is reminiscent of another rural doctor, Ernest Ceriani, the subject of Eugene Smith’s seminal photo essay, “Country Doctor,” from 1948.

On weekdays, Dr. Ciupitu, 61, stays in Gângiova sleeping on an old hospital bed in a tiny room above her practice, occasionally watching television. On weekends, she goes home to her family about 40 miles north, in Craiova.

Entering Dr. Ciupitu’s office, Ms. Moldovan was transported to another era. Antique scales, paper medical records stacked on an old wooden filing cabinet and white ceramic water pitchers glistened against the light through sheer, lace curtains.

“I thought it would be a little bit more evolved,” Ms. Moldovan said. “It’s 2016 and we are a European Union country.”

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Dr. Ciupitu waking up in the little room above her practice, where she sleeps on weekdays. In the winter, she heats the room with firewood. November 2016.Credit Iona Moldovan

Romania is one of the poorest countries in the European Union and one that, despite recent efforts, is plagued by corruption. The health care sector has suffered from a tradition of bribery and, earlier this year, an investigation revealed that a pharmaceutical company was diluting products, including hospital disinfectants. There have been at least 25 health ministers in the 27 years since the Romanian revolution — not counting those who have held interim posts.

Trained doctors, especially younger ones, have been fleeing the country and, according to the Romanian Health Ministry, there is a severe doctor shortage.

“Even if they stay, a lot of doctors prefer working in urban areas,” said Ms. Moldovan. “Half the population lives in a rural area, but they have half the number of doctors compared to urban areas, so they are outnumbered two to one.”

Unlike hospital doctors, family doctors are self-employed, but they are the gateway to the public health system. This means those on welfare cannot access free services without a general practitioner unless they enroll in private health care.

But instead of exposing a system with flaws, Ms. Moldovan decided to shadow a family doctor to show young medical graduates a positive example of health care, so they might reconsider before leaving the country. She also wanted to challenge stereotypes about the Romanian system.

“I wanted to talk about the problems in the health care system in Romania, but at the same time I wanted to do it by showing a good example of a doctor that is involved in the community.”

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Dr. Ciupitu with a patient. August 2016.Credit Iona Moldovan

So while younger doctors continue to flee Romania, chasing higher pay in other European Union member states, Ms. Moldovan hopes to remind them of the difference between a calling and a career.

Dr. Ciupitu is just that example.

“Everyone says hello when she passes on the street,” said Ms. Moldovan. “She’s a bit of a local hero.”